Squeezing your phone between your shoulder and ear you tilted one of the heavy boxes that was placed on top of your kitchen table. You tried not to focus too much on the piles that were still left, indicating there was still a lot of work that had to be done. As you shifted the heavy weight inside of your arms, pressing it against your chest so you’d have more strength to carry it, you took a deep breath, telling yourself that screaming at her wasn’t the best way for you to fix this. But you were close, it was very hard for you to hold back. “I can’t believe you bailed, do you have any idea how long it’s going to take for me to do this all on my own?” You told your roommate, even though you were sure she already knew about that face. She had helped you load all of your stuff in those boxes, she knew how many of them were waiting for you to be carried to the dorm a few floors up. You couldn’t believe she had decided to get ill today, and remain home with her parents instead of coming back here to help you move everything out. Deep inside you knew it wasn’t her fault, but still. Hadn’t she been able to pick out a different day? One on which there wasn’t as much work that had to be done? The owner expected you to be gone by the end of the weekend, so she could let some specialist come over to look at the place. You had a small issue with mold, it was disgusting. But it did give the two of you to finally move towards the newest parts of the dorms and start fresh, without the chance of getting your lungs damaged because of breathing in the toxic air. You could feel the guilt inside of her voice as she spoke, and you knew that you shouldn’t be this harsh on her. You were overreacting, simply because you knew that the chance you’d be able to get this finished all on your own was little. There was only so many boxes a person could move on their own. Your muscles were probably going to ache by the end of the day because of all the lifting. 

“I know, I’m so sorry! I swear I’ll come over as soon as I can.” She ensured you, and you hoped she felt better tomorrow, so the two of you would at least be able to end this together. You had always gotten along well with your roommate, expect for a few differences. Like the one where she liked to forget cleaning up her underwear after having on the couch, one you totally couldn’t stand. It had happened once, you had made sure that after that, it never had happened again. “It’s fine, just get better soon, so we can at least decorate the place together.” You mumbled, knowing that you were even worse at those kinds of things than dragging these boxes out of the door. You didn’t have a great eye for detail, and creativity hadn’t been one of the gifts you had owned from your mother, who was a painter and owned her own art gallery. There were times you wondered if something had gone wrong, if you’d been mixed with someone else after your birth. But your parents always assured you that you were their daughter, but that you were just a little bit different from the rest of your family. In other words, you were the ugly duck, and you were still waiting until you would turn into a swan. You had been waited for twenty one ing years, a lifetime. “I will! I really hope the job isn’t too hard to do alone?” She replied and you bit down on your tongue so you wouldn’t tell her that was a very stupid thing to say. Your dad always said there were no such things as stupid questions, only stupid answers and you forbade yourself from giving her one. Of course this was an impossible thing to manage on your own, but that didn’t mean you were going to do it on your own. “Don’t worry, I texted my brother. He’s coming over to help me after work.” You explained, relieved that the guy was good enough to make some free time for you and come help you out. You had told him it was an emergence, and practically that hadn’t been a lie. You and your brother had always been able to get along really well. 

She seemed to feel the exact same way, now that she knew that you wouldn’t have to do all of this by yourself. You bade her goodbye, told her to rest well and catch up on some sleep. College was a pain in the , and you knew that you could all use every single moment you could get to catch up on some time for yourselves. One where you wouldn’t be stuck with your nose in a book or you’d have to drag yourself towards the library for a group assignment. Those were one of the moments you wished you’d rather be alone than someone to be stuck to your leg. Hanging up the phone your tried to prop in back into the pocket of your sweats without dropping anything. When you had picked this one up there had been ‘BREAKABLE’ spelled on the top of the box in bright red letters, so you guessed that when this one landed on the floor, you’d be picking up the pieces.  With a groan you hoisted the weight up higher, and you actually had to curl your head around the box in order to see anything. You should have picked out smaller ones, but then again, the work would have lasted even longer. Grateful that you had been smart enough to leave the door open you walked out of the small apartment, making your way into the hall. You trusted your neighbors to be out for the weekend, or to ignore that your door was standing wide open. You couldn’t imagine any of them trying to steal anything. To be honest you knew that you had pretty good neighbors, expect for being loud sometimes they had always been pleasant. Your sneakers squeezed on the tiles and your ponytail swung behind your head as you made your way towards the elevator. Another thing you were grateful for. You were moving up three floors, you didn’t want to think about what would have happened to you if you’d had to carry all of this stuff up the stairs. You would have dropped dead, for sure. Lifting your knee you jumped, pressing the button with it and you smiled in victory when it actually seemed to work. Perhaps not all was lost. And so you waited, your arms already turning into jelly because of the weight they were carrying. And this was only the first box. 

It seemed to take forever until the elevator finally came up to your floor, and the ping finally resounded around the room. The doors opened painfully slow and you almost bumped the box against it as you tried to walk in. “Woohh, careful there.” A voice, said, indicating that another person was inside and you had almost walked him over. It sounded like a guy, his voice deep and coming from somewhere deep inside of his chest. Somehow it sounded familiar, but you weren’t able to stick a face on it right away. “Sorry!” You shouted over the box, turning so that your face was against the wall and you could walk straight of of the doors as soon as they opened. Searching for the buttons you noticed that they were on the other side, and a body was blocking them. You couldn’t see his face, but he seemed to be dressed in free time clothing, just like you. Probably another college student who’d been too lazy or too busy to go home over the weekend. “Where are you headed?” He asked, and you thought it was friendly of him that he was willing to press the button for you so you didn’t have to show your embarrassing jump-knee move again. This building was huge and you knew that there like a few rude people in here who would have refused to help you. But it seemed as if you were lucky so far. “The sixth floor please, thanks.” You muttered from behind the cardboard and you heard him press something before the doors finally closed again and you were off. You always got a slight light feeling inside of your head while riding this elevator, something you didn’t have with others. You wondered why that was. Though, you squealed when all of a sudden a shock seemed to travel through the floor underneath you before all the lights went off and the elevator stilled, as in completely stopped moving. It seemed like your biggest nightmare was finally coming true. This couldn’t be happening right now. 

“What the hell.” The guy beside you muttered, awe audible inside of his words as he began pressing the buttons beside him, almost frantically. You didn’t know if it was because he was in a hurry, or because just like you, the thought of being stuck in here didn’t appeal to him at all. When he stopped there was dead silence around you, indicating that the two of you had or gotten stuck in between two floors or that there wasn’t a single person on the floor you were currently standing at. The two of you were alone. “.” Was the last thing he said as he pressed himself against the wall beside you. Your arms were trembling and you pursed your lips in annoyance as you realized that this wasn’t good for your schedule. How were you going to be able to get all of these boxes upstairs if you were stuck in here? A frustrated growl left your lips as you slipped the box down your body, and placed it on the floor. You flinched when a clinging sound echoed against the walls, and you could only wish you hadn’t broken the breakable things which were in there. “This really . I’m supposed to be moving! I only have two freaking days!” You complained, pressing the palms of your hands against your eyes as you remained crouched down in front of the box. You had cheered too early. You had been so convinced of your luck that the universe had decided to turn itself against you. All of this seemed like a big joke. “How about your roommate?” The stranger asked from beside you, and it was almost as if he knew exactly what kind of questions you didn’t want to hear right now, because this wasn’t making you feel much better. heaving a deep sigh you placed your hands on your knees before pushing yourself upright. “She’s sick, so I have to do it on my own. I can’t believe she ditched me…” You started but got interrupted by the clearly stunned sound of your name coming out of the guy in front of you. You blinked your eyes in surprise before snapping your head up at him, surprised that he knew who you were while you had no idea who he was…At least that was what you had thought, until now. 

“Taehyung…” You muttered, a shiver running down your spine as the familiar taste of his name stayed behind on your tongue. It had been a while since you’d last said that name out loud. He hadn’t changed much over the years, though he did look older, more grown up, more manly. His shoulders had become broader, his face more mature. Yet, he was still as handsome as he had always been. You should have known, there was only one man on this world who’s voice could be so deep but so angelic at the same time. You hadn’t seem him in ages, ever since the two of you had parted ways to get off to university. Several kinds of feelings seemed to be rushing through you by the side of him, and the same seemed to count for him. He’d turned silent, his eyes taking you in just like yours were doing with him. You wondered what he thought of you when he saw you here like this. All of a sudden your choice of comfortable clothing above casual seemed regretful. “It’s been so long.” You choked, lifting your hand to comb it through the stands of your messy ponytail. But there was nothing that could be done about your looks. He nodded, almost as if he was too much in shock to speak. But when he did speak eventually, his voice sounded just as strained as yours. “Yeah, it’s been since high school. We haven’t seen each other since…” he stopped, the unfinished sentence drifting around the air of the dark elevator. You knew exactly what he had wanted to say, but he hadn’t been willing to say in need to prevent things from becoming awkward. But you guessed they already had, so why bother. “Since we broke up.” You finished it for him and his look immediately lingered away from yours, almost as if he was embarrassed because of that statement. For a moment a silence fell over the two of you as you both got stuck inside of your own memories. 

Taehyung had been your first real boyfriend and you hated to admit it, but he had also been your last. You’d had flings in college, but none of them had been what you’d been looking for. You had been friends with him before the two of you had decided that you liked each other more than that and you had started dating. You had both been sixteen, in the middle of your high school careers. Things had been new and exciting. You had shared many things with him over the years, from your first kiss to the first time of having . He had been your first in many different ways, and that was also what you had been for him. You’d shared laughter and tears together, until you had graduated and he was said to be moving out of the city to go to university. He’d gotten a scholarship and it would have been crazy for him not to take it. You granted him the chance, you wanted what was best for him, but your future lay here and so you’d decided to stay behind. The two of you had broken things off at the last day of your summer holiday, right before he had left. You didn’t want to be stuck to something that might not survive this, and you wanted to give each other the chance to grow, to discover new things. It didn’t mean that you hadn’t still loved him when he had left and man, it had hurt. You had bawled your eyes out for days, but eventually you had gotten over him. You had never come to hate him, because just like many choices you had made with him by your side, this also had been one you had made together. The two of you had tried to stay in contact, but you had both figured that it was too hard, after everything that had been going on between the two of you and so it had faded over time. He had gone of with his life and so had you, slowly forgetting about each other. But now that he was standing here in front of you, it all came back to you in full force. Your high school sweetheart, the only guy you’d ever loved. 

Taehyung’s eyes flickered towards your every once in a while, he simply wasn’t able to keep them off of you. How long had it been, five years? It seemed like forever. He couldn’t believe you were standing here right now, that he had the chance of meeting you in a broken down elevator. He knew that if he would have run into you on the streets he would have tried to get away from you as quickly as possible, but now he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t believe you still used the same vanilla shampoo as you had done back then, when he had literally been addicted to the smell. Now it was floating towards him in the small space, making him dizzy. You had always been beautiful, but it seemed like it had grown even more over the years. He loved the simpleness of your looks, how easy it seemed for you to look this flawless even in a pair of sweats. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized you before, but it had been hard to see with that box you’d been holding. He hadn’t seen you in so long, he hadn’t thought he would ever see you agin, yet, here you were. Somehow his heart still seemed to be ruffling inside of his chest, another thing that hadn’t changed over the years. He had always felt as if his chapter with you had never gotten the closing it deserved. He knew it could have been much more if the two of you had only given it a chance. But he had been young and foolish. Back then he had been sure that he’d known what was best for him, but actually he had been an idiot. He’d thought that as long as he would never see you again he would be able to live with his mistake. But now you seemed to be living in this dorm too, and you were moving up to floor number six, the same one he lived at. It would become quite impossible to avoid you now, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. At this point he wasn’t sure of what he wanted at all. 

“But what are you doing here?” You asked, wondering why it seemed as if he was living here while he was supposed to be going to college at the other side of the country. It wasn’t making any sense. His expression turned into a sour one, and you realized too late that you had asked the wrong question. You were planning on taking it back when he answered you. “I quit. It seemed like that scholarship wasn’t for me after all.” He pattered and you shot him a compassionate look. You’d known how badly he had wanted his dreams to work out. It had been a high aim, but you had been sure that he would be able to make it work. You had really wanted it to work for him, but it seemed like in the end your hoped hadn’t been high enough. So he had decided to start fresh here. You didn’t understand? Why had he come back? Why hadn’t he just stayed there, finished his school and found himself a job in that area? Yet, you didn’t want to be rude so you didn’t ask. Instead you allowed yourself to slip down the wall and sit down on the floor, guessing that help wasn’t on the way any time soon. If you were going to be stuck in here for so long you might as well make yourself at home. “How about you? How have you been?” He asked as you lowered himself beside you. It was as if electricity was fluttering between the two of you. He wasn’t that far away from you, but he also wasn’t close enough to touch you. Still, there seemed to be some kind of tension building between the two of you as you turned your head to look at him. It was just like old times. “I’m currently keeping up on my master in literature. It’s interesting, a challenge, I like those.” You said, and he smiled at you as if he already knew that. You couldn’t stop the blush that was slipping onto your cheeks. Yet, he didn’t seem to mind as he searched for something else to say. You hadn’t seen each other in so long, still you felt as if he had never left. It was almost as if you could pick things back up where they had left off, but you weren’t that naive. A lot had changed since he had gone. 

“So then why are you moving?” He asked nodding towards the box which was standing near your feet. You eyed the thing in misery, though if you had to run behind on schedule you found this the perfect way to fulfill your time. It was probably weird, knowing that you still had another year to go but you were already packing your bags. “Molt.” Was the only thing you had to say as it caused him to pull a face. You laughed and you weren’t sure if you imagined it but it was almost as if the sound caused his eyes to twinkle. His elbow bumped against yours, sending small sparks through you, but instead of pulling away he rested it there. You felt as if you were sixteen again, all nervous and wild. There was nothing to loose, and everything to gain. “And your roommate ditched you, so now you have to move all of this on your own.” He stated, and you nodded, even though your roommate hadn’t really ditched you and she was actually sick. But you didn’t feel like explaining all of that to him when it could all be this simple. His gaze locked with yours as a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Do you fancy some help? I’m quite good at carrying boxes.” He suggested and you tried your hardest not to squeal out of happiness. Your heart was fluttering inside of your chest, hundreds of butterflies roaming in your stomach as your palms became sweaty. How was it possible that he still had this hold over you? “I guess I wouldn’t mind.” You said softly and gasped when all of a sudden the lights flickered back on and the ground underneath your feet started moving again. You were both dazed when the doors opened and presented an empty hallway to you. At first neither of you moved, not willing to get away from this little bubble that had formed around the two of you just yet. But then Taehyung straightened up, extending his hands to you so that you could pull yourself up at them. Shyly you laid your palms in his, and enjoyed the way his fingers curled around yours and helped you up. They lingered for a little longer than necessary before letting go. “Well then, let’s move you into the sixth floor, neighbor.”